The Aadhaar Project is a unique identification process which was established in February 2009. The project is implemented by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) which is an agency of the Government of India. The project aims to provide a unique 12 digit ID number to all Indians and the UIDAI will maintain a database of residents containing biometric and other data. The ID number will be stored in a centralised database and then it would be linked to the basic demographics and biometric information like photograph, ten fingerprints and iris of the eye of each and every individual of the country. The verification of the number can be done in a very simple way with the help of online connectivity. It also gives a great opportunity for the Government of India to reduce and eliminate the large number of duplicate and fake identities in Government and private databases. The number which would be provided to an individual by the process of random generation will not be based on any caste, creed, religion and geography.
The main objective of the project is to ensure a form of identity for those people who do not have any identity. The project also aims at providing better delivery of services and effective governance. The total budget for the project is a whopping rupees 18,000 crores. In the 2009-2010 Union Budget, Rs. 100 crore was approved for the project for its first year of existence. The project got a huge boost when an amount of Rs. 1900 crore was approved for the term 2010-2011. For the budget year of 2012-2013, Rs 1758 crore has been approved for the project.

The claimed benefits of the project include :

Aadhaar would be the sole source of identity of verification.
People would be released from the problem of providing supporting identity cards on a repetitive basis for obtaining a passport, opening of bank account, driving license etc.
The poor and the underprivileged residents would be facilitated into the formal banking system and other services provided by the government.
Migrants would be provided with the opportunity of mobility of identity.
There would also be a financial inclusion with a deeper penetration of banks and other financial areas.
However, the Aadhaar project is facing a lot of criticism as well, especially as its benefits are still to be proved. The main criticism has come from the Planning Commission — it has questioned the administrative system of the project. As per the Planning Commission the people sitting at the top positions would not be seated forever and thus the influence of people like Nandan Nilekani would be missed. So a system should be made wherein the entire procedure of selecting the administrators would be fixed and the issuance of cards would be easily understood by individuals who come by in the future. The other criticism is the infringement on the right of privacy of information which is a crucial factor in the life of any individual. The criticism is that there could be a misuse of the personal information, surveillance, profiling, linking and matching of data bases and thus the confidentiality of the information would come under threat. Another major criticism is the high cost that has been approved for the project. The costs that have been approved till date might not be covered by the future revenue that would be produced from this project. The budget for the project is a huge amount and not covering the actual cost would mean a loss of a big number which might even hinder the financial position of the country.

The Aadhaar project is facing a lot of criticism as well, especially as its benefits are still to be proved. The main criticism has come from the Planning Commission – it has questioned the administrative system of the project. Amongst other problems, there could be a misuse of the personal information, surveillance, profiling, linking and matching of data bases and thus the confidentiality of the information would come under threat.

Doubts about the reliability of the biometric methods is another criticism which the project is facing. It is an area of concern that the techniques used for biometrics cannot be relied upon as the testing of the technique has not been done fully. So the main basis of identification comes into a thick cloud as biometrics is going to define the main identity of an individual. Fingerprints are another major area of concern. It is often seen that the finger prints of individuals are not proper and clear at all points of time and thus there might be times when the finger prints would not be of the quality which the project is looking for. Yet another criticism is the time span in the completion of the project. The project would take a lot of time to cover the total population of
the country as there is such a big population, so it becomes even more difficult to complete this process efficaciously. And finally the issuance of the card would mean that no services can be availed in the country without this card . This would become a big problem as the time that would be taken by the project to complete the entire process of distributing identity cards to all the citizens would be lengthy and thus for those still waiting for cards, life could become extremely difficult.

Levels of Air pollution, which are already high in India, reach astronomical levels on Diwali and can be very harmful to the human body.

Crackers release a lot of Ultra-violet and Infrared radiation, which are harmful to the eyes and the body parts.

Maximum numbers of Burn cases are reported during Diwali due to the improper use of crackers.

Humans might be able to protect themselves, but the crackers have a deep physical and mental impact upon animals.

Most of the factories manufacturing crackers employ children. So by bursting we are encouraging Child Labour.

Noise pollution due to the sound of these crackers is above the permitted levels. Crackers can cause deafness.We also started donation drive and raised Rs 5,000 which were given to NGOGoon, and this year we again continue .Last year, we were a small group of 6 dedicated children, Aarohi, Pulkit, Rahul, Kshitij, Pranesh, , Naman , Ibad, Esha , Brihataj , but now seeing our success we were joined by more children our numbers increased to 9 children. We are operating on a small scale, only in our locality, in Juhu Mumbai. The children are in age group of 9-13 years.The primary reason we started this was a newspaper article I read sometime in October 2011. It brought to light the death of a child due to being accidently hit on the head by one of those popular toy guns.

One thing that makes me grateful to my friends is the answer they gave their parents as to why they were part of this campaign. I expected something like “My friend told me it was a good idea.”, but definitely not, “I am doing this because I know what would have happened if I had been in place of that child who died due to a makeshift gun.” That truly left me elated.

We also run a Facebook page called Eco friendly diwali which we started last year. We intend to donate what we collected to an acclaimed NGO named Goonj as we did last year.

Even though we collect donations for the downtrodden, the driving focus behind our campaign is to celebrate an eco friendly diwali.

Though many children in our neighborhood still burst crackers, we are not disheartened and are still working towards our goal.

We hope adults also join us , So let’s celebrate Diwali (Deepavali) as a festival of lights, not sound!

Sharp differences emerged between the police and members of the medical board after the former submitted a chargesheet declaring decorated athlete Pinki Pramanik as being a male and proceeding to accuse the person of raping a woman while the doctors told HT Pramanik was not a male but a “male pseudo hermaphrodite”.

On June 14, a 32 year-old woman lodged a complaint with the Baguihati police here against Pramanik, saying ‘he’ had raped her with the promise of marriage.

Pramanik had also grabbed her properties, the woman alleged in the complaint, on the basis of which Pramanik was arrested and produced before a court the same day.

Defending the police version Shantomay Basu, additional public prosecutor said, “The medical board that examined Pinki Pramanik declared Pramanik as being a male having the ability to rape. The police have filed the chargesheet in this regard.”

Members of the medical board told HT they differed with the police.

“Pinki is neither a male nor a female. Pramanik is a male pseudo hermaphrodite. It is genetic disorder. That’s the medical opinion. It’s now for the court to deliberate,” Dr BN Kahali, board chairman, said.

Charged with rape, Pinki says police want her to commit suicide

KOLKATA Citing a medical report that claimed that gold medallist athlete Pinki Pramanik was a “male”, police Monday filed a chargesheet in a West Bengal court accusing the sportsperson of rape.The police chargesheet was based on the opinion of a sevenmember medical board constituted to confirm the athlete’s gender in June following allegations by her live-in partner that she was “actually a male” who had raped her repeatedly.
The formal set of charges was filed inthecourtofchiefjudicialmagistrate at Barasat town in North 24 Parganas district. Pinki is now out on bail.
Alleging a “huge conspiracy” after police filed a chargesheet Pramanik saidtheinvestigatingauthoritieswere trying to force her to commit suicide.
Pinki said that contrary to the police claim, the medical report had concluded that she was incapable of committing rape. However, she said despite requests, she had not been givenacopyofthemedicalreport.“Police have plotted a huge conspiracy againstme.Theyaretryingtoforceme into committing suicide,” said Pinki. The chargesheet said Pinki was a male and accused the athlete of raping her live-in partner.PINKI MALE: MEDICAL REPORTThe chargesheet was based on the opinion of the seven-member medical board which had been constituted at the state-run SSK Hospital to confirm the athlete’s gender in June following allegations from her live-in partner that she was “actually a male” who had raped her repeatedly.
“Medical tests have confirmed thatPinkiisnotafemale,”B.N.Kahali, chairman of the board, told AFP. “Pinki is a male pseudo-hermaphrodite. Wehavesubmittedthemedicalreport to the district sessions court.”
Male pseudo-hermaphrodites are genetic males who develop some female physical characteristics and identities. Additional Public Prosecutor Santomoy Bose said after the hearing: “I have seen the report…from the doctors’ opinion it can be concluded that Pinki is a male.” The chargesheet alsoaccusedPinkioftorture,cheating, co-habiting with the promise of marriage and threat to the complainant not to disclose their relationship.
“As per my knowledge, the board had said I had symptoms of excess male hormones as after-effect of some of the drugs I had taken during my sports career,” Pinki said.
The athlete was arrested June 14 and remanded to judicial custody the nextdayaftertheathlete’slive-inpartner,adivorceeandamotherofone,filed the police complaint.
Pinki was later taken to a private nursing home for a medical check-up where the test reports claimed that the athlete was indeed a male. The athlete was taken to the Barasat district hospital and finally to the state-run SSKM Hospital here for the tests.
As SSKM Hospital did not have facilities for chromosome pattern test, the samples were sent to Hyderabad where the examination was done.
Pinki later alleged that she was treated like an animal during gender tests which were done by tying her hands and feet.
The treatment meted out to the athlete had then attracted severe criticism from all quarters, including the sporting fraternity. Pinki, who retired from athletics three years ago, won gold in the 4×400 metres relay at the 2006 Asian Games in Qatar’s capital Doha. Pinki was a silver medallist at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games the same year.